KLPGA kicks off 2022 Tour with Lotte Rent-a-Car Ladies Open

Golf

Published: 06 Apr. 2022, 16:04

KLPGA kicks off 2022 Tour with Lotte Rent-a-Car Ladies Open

Lee So-mi tees off on the first hole of the NH Investment & Securities Ladies Championship on May 16, 2021. [KLPGA]

Cho A-yean tees off on the 13th hole of the Lotte Rent-a-Car Ladies Open at Lotte Skyhill Jeju in Jeju on April 9, 2021. [KLPGA]

The 2022 KLPGA Tour tees off Thursday with the Lotte Rent-a-Car Ladies Open at Lotte Skyhill Jeju on Jeju Island, with 120 golfers competing to win the first trophy of the season.

The KLPGA Tour is back this year with the biggest total purse in Tour history. The KLPGA announced in January that the 2022 Tour will have a record 33 competitions and a total of about 30.5 billion won ($25 million) in prize money available throughout the year.

Since then, the Kyochon Honey Ladies Open and Celltrion Queens Masters have each increased their prize pots by 200 million won to make a total purse of 30.9 billion won, 4 billion won more than last year to mark the first time the total prize money has surpassed 30 billion won.

There will be a total of 33 events this year, four more than last year's 29. Of the four newly added tournaments, two will be inaugural events: The Mediheal-Hankook Ilbo Championship in April and the KH Group IHQ Women's Open in October.

The growth in the KLPGA purse size reflects the increased interest in the Tour. The 2021 season was an exceptionally successful season for the KLPGA, as the sport enjoyed an enormous boom in popularity.

As well as the KLPGA Tour regaining most of the tournaments that were canceled in the 2020 season due to Covid-19, golf had become much more popular during the pandemic, especially among younger people, as other leisure activities have been unavailable due to social distancing regulations.

Golf courses saw a record number of visitors last year. Around 1.66 million people visited Jeju's golf courses in the first seven months of 2021, a 37.3 percent increase from the same period in 2020, according to government data. In addition, sales of golf-related products in department stores jumped by 7.8 percent.

Most KLPGA tournament broadcasts also recorded their highest viewing rates ever in the 2021 season. LPGA golfer Kim Hyo-joo's first KLPGA win of the season at the OKSavingsBank Se Ri Pak Invitational reached a record-high viewing rate of 1.418 percent, while Kim Su-ji's victory at the Hite Jinro Championship, the last major of the 2021 season, also reached a highest-ever viewing rate of 1.755 percent.

Park Min-ji and Lim Hee-jeong, KLPGA favorites that enjoyed the heightened popularity of golf last year, will be back this year.

Park was in spectacular form last year, winning six titles to top the KLPGA points table with 680 points, with Lim not far behind with 618 points.

However, both Park and Lim will miss out on the opening event of the season. Park recently tested positive for Covid-19 and Lim is recovering after playing two LPGA events in the United States as a guest.

Lee So-mi looks at the green of the fourth hole at the S-OIL Championship on Nov. 7, 2021. [KLPGA]

The Lotte Rent-a-Car Ladies Open kicks off the 2022 KLPGA season. The event started in 2008 and has continued every year except in 2020, when the tournament was canceled due to the Covid-19 pandemic. No one has won the tournament more than once.

With the top two KLPGA golfers from last season out of the picture, defending champion Lee So-mi will be looking to become the first ever golfer to defend her title on the course.

Lee opened her previous season on a high note, winning the Lotte Rent-a-Car Ladies Open two strokes ahead of Jang Ha-na. After that, Lee was able to win the Dayouwinia MBN Ladies Open last August for her third career KLPGA title.

"This is the first time I am competing as defending champion," said Lee in a pre-tournament interview.

"Instead of being caught up by the fact, I am trying to keep a cool head. I prepared as much as I could for this event as I have done for all events until now. My goal is to be able to play just as well as I have practiced during the winter, not better or worse. I will try my best to fulfill that aim."

Golf courses on Jeju Island are known for being difficult due to strong winds and hard greens. At last year's Lotte Rent-a-Car Ladies Open, only the top three golfers were able to score below 288 to go under-par for the entire tournament.

"My score will depend on my course management and weather," Lee said. "The greens are hard so good course management and putting is crucial. The weather is the biggest variable, but if I can control my play around it, then I think I will get good results."

Cho A-yean tries her iron on the second hole of the Lotte Rent-a-Car Ladies Open at Lotte Skyhill Jeju in Jeju on April 8, 2021. [KLPGA]

Cho A-yean, who won the 2019 Lotte Rent-a-Car Ladies Open title as a rookie three years ago, will be hoping for a return to glory this year.

"I feel excited and nervous at the same time since this is the first tournament of the season and I have memories of winning the title as a rookie," said Cho during a pre-tournament interview.

"I trained hard during the winter in the United States. I had a hard time last season because I had the driver yips. I tried hard to get rid of it and focused on the accuracy of my driver shots. I also tried changing my putting grip this year. I am not sure how these big changes will play out, but I trust in the time that I put in practicing."

Cho will tee off alongside Park Seo-jin and Yang Chae-lin at 7 a.m. on Thursday, while Lee will tee off alongside Ryu Hae-ran and Jang at 12:10 p.m.

BY YUN SO-HYANG [yun.sohyang@joongang.co.kr]